As Mayor Bertrand Delanoe launched the first Paris Tourist Day on the sprawling Trocadero Plaza across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, the response from passers-by was predictable: Parisians said their rude reputation was exaggerated. Visitors disagreed.
Paul Roll, director of the Paris Tourism Office, conceded that the French capital has a “rather unfriendly” image but defended his compatriots.
He said the campaign was aimed at making Parisians understand how important tourists are to their city’s economic growth, and to help them improve their habits when dealing with foreigners. A full 12 percent of jobs in Paris are directly connected to tourism, Roll said.
“To be frank,” said Brazilian tourist Joana D’Arc de Almeida, “I think Paris needs to learn a lot about how to deal with tourists, because that’s what brings money to the city. It looks like they have so much money from it already that they don’t care about people anymore.”
She said she’s determined, regardless, to adapt to the “French way of doing things.”
Pouty Paris Makes Nice for Tourists By Antonio Oliveira AP
Question:
A) Is this a story reminding us how we should greet the stranger in a distant land?
-or-
B) Is this a story about the continued Disney-ification of the world where actual communities are supposed to give way to the dollars of wealthy patrons?
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